Hi I’m new here so please go easy.
I want to find other people who are interested in the vintage pokemon competitive scene. Does this scene exist? If not are there people interested?
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Same. Someone make this a reality! 
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I would be interested! But are we talking about playing in person, playing online, or both?
Go to TCGone.net
You can make your own deck and play in any competitive format from years’ past. Not the same as playing in person, but it’s certainly something!
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magic has this, why not pokemon? I honestly have really never played… tried with my kids and utterly failed. But 1st ed base, jungle, fossil the original 151 (150 sad mew) would be fun. need the world to open up
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I think in person is always best but online is more optimized for developing a competitive scene and that in general you want both. Online would be a really cool place to start if it’s possible.
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Mainly because ownership changed from wotc to Nintendo in 2003. Also vintage cards are less powerful. It’s the opposite of mtg. The current meta is insane. Back in the day 120 HP was the highest, now it’s 300 for some Pokémon.
With that said I wish it was like mtg where you could play any era.
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it sounds like lots of fun…
makes sense… I’ve been opening some of the modern decks with my kids. seems like every gx Charizard does 300 damage. tag teams etc with their high hp and attacks would stomp out the old cards
This is great! I just made an account there after looking at the formats. The “classic” format is precisely what I had in mind.
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actually in original magic, you could play four of everything if you wanted. this changed very quickly of course…
ok fair point. TBH I can’t even remember the original, original rules but I can still remember playing in my friends basement. and yes back on topic. pokemon
Some articles and youtube on the classic meta. It is very similar to a powered up version of vintage mtg. Decks are super consistent and you win by using your resources better than the other guy.
www.smogon.com/smog/issue12/tcg
jklaczpokemon.wordpress.com/1999-base-fossil/
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I would be very interested in this, especially if the cutoff was everything Neo Destiny and older.
Snowpoint Temple is the group on Facebook if you’re on there. I know a few people from E4 are there as well. 04, 06, and 2010 are very popular
Would like to give a shout-out to Drunk Shuckle, whose deck idea videos got me into making competitive decks for the first time ever despite being in the hobby for over 20 years.
Here’s his video that explains the Base - Neo format, which only had like one official major tournament back in the day but has become a fan favorite for vintage players in the modern era: The Wonderful Base-Neo Format - YouTube
Again, I said this on the first page, but to reiterate: go to TCGone.net and make an account. You can make competitive decks for any format from the past, and use them to play against real people. Be warned–most players on there are quite good and you won’t be winning much when you start! I know from (ongoing) personal experience lol
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The Gamebooks.com fossil expansion player’s guide has the following meta decks build by “pros”. Keep in mind this was before the movie promo Mewtwo release. Check out the second link in my previous post to see how Mewtwo replaced hitmonchan in haymaker decks.
“Woodworth”
Haymaker deck focusing on turboing out the most powerful pokemon outside of rainmaker decks - Wigglytuff. The rest of the deck focuses on disrupting the opponent and adding consistency to your own game plan.
4 Jigglypuff
3 Wigglytuff
4 Scyther
3 Fossil Magmar
3 Hitmonchan
4 Bill
3 Professor Oak
3 Computer Search
2 Item Finder
3 Pluspower
3 Gust of wind
2 Super energy removal
10 Fighting energy
9 Fire energy
4 Double colorless energy
Rain Dance
Pokemon’s Tron. This deck takes risk in the first few turns of the game in order to develop a board that will dominate any deck with raw power. Pray that squirtle lives turn one in order to blizzard with articuno turn two. Make sure you keep a Lapras around for mr.mime.
4 Squirtle
1 Wartortle
4 Blastoise
4 Articuno
3 Lapras
4 Professor Oak
4 Bill
3 Computer search
3 Item finder
3 Pokemon breeder
3 Gust of wind
2 Super energy removal
22 Water energy
Deep Haymaker
Haymaker deck focused on efficient base pokemon, consistency, and disruption, with a meta edge including Muk to shut down the powerful evolution decks. This is probably my favorite deck!
4 Hitmonchan
3 Hitmonlee
4 Scyther
3 Grimer
3 Muk
4 Bill
2 Professor Oak
3 Energy Removal
3 Super energy removal
3 Item finder
3 Gust of wind
3 Pluspower
11 Fighting energy
11 Grass energy
Cursed Swap
Alakazam is completely busted if you can get it into play with a decent bench. This deck overpowers every other deck if it gets the time to setup. This is not even with mewtwo in it:
4 Fossil Gastly
3 Fossil Haunter
2 Gengar
4 Abra
3 Kadabra
2 Alakazam
2 Mr. Mime
4 Chansey
3 Professor oak
3 Computer search
3 Pokemon trader
3 Pokemon center
2 Mr. Fuji
2 Energy retrieval
There are three generic super archtypes: Haymaker (the best basic pokemon and trainer cards), evolution (overpowering late game at cost of vulnerable basics and fewer disruptive trainers), and for the bastards out there: Stall (you are going to win by you opponent drawing all cards in their deck before collecting six prizes). The stall decks are not my style but nonetheless they are tier one. Here is my favorite example:
Recursive Scavenger
Plan A is to get a slowpoke + energy removal lock going where you can trade one of your energy in play against one or your opponents energy in play every turn while slowpoke is your active and you have energy to equip it with.
3 Fossil Gastly
4 SLowpoke
4 Chansey
3 Mr.Mime
4 Gambler
2 Bill
3 Computer search
1 Imposter professor oak
2 Scoop up
2 Recycle
4 Pokemon center
4 Energy removal
And finally, here is what I would recommend everybody plays. This is the starting point for a tier one mewtwo / wigglytuff haymaker deck:
4 Mewtwo promo
3 Scyther
2 Jigglypuff
2 Wigglytuff
2 Mew
1 Grimer
1 Muk
3 Computer search
3 Professor oak
3 Bill
3 Energy removal
3 Super energy removal
3 Item finder
3 Pluspower
3 Gust of wind
2 Energy retrieval
2 Switch
1 Mr. Fuji
9 Psychic energy
3 Grass energy
4 Double colorless energy
Pretty much just trying to control the game with an active mewtwo or wigglytuff backed up by disruption.
Check out those articles to explain which cards were good and why they were good in this meta. You have the ability to burn through your whole deck in a few turns but the pokemon are pretty weak so you will lose if you are too aggressive and burn your deck before you can get your six prizes. That makes an interesting dynamic where you always have the option to trade resources for answers.
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Welcome to efour 
This format is commonly referred to as the “legacy format”. My friends and I play competitively in the standard format. The Pokemon Online Trading Card Game (PTCGO) has every card available for play from Sword And Shield all the back to Black & White. A downside to PTCGO being there is no way to play with past format rules, only the current standard ones. However, I believe that there is a homebrew platform/software that caters to players who wanna play from Black and White all the back to the Base Set formats. With customizable options/rules to match whatever format you want to play i.e attacking first turn, supporter rule, etc etc.
I will try to find what that program is and I’ll post it here.
@mtajaj32 , I just saw you mentioned TCGone earlier.
Another great resource for deck building/info/decklists and the history of the early meta games is Jason Klaczynski’s wordpress/blog. (I included a link to it below). He is essentially the Tom Brady of competitive pokemon, won worlds 3 times when nobody else has won more than once.
It does exist, you can try tcgone.net to test decks, and try to post on your local fb card pages to find people to play irl.